Category Archives: Day 6 – January 11, 2012

Ms. Ayla Matalon the Executive Director of MIT Enterprise Forum, Israel along with Dr. Ed Mlavsky, President Emeritus, Founding Partner, Gemini Israel Funds & Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Israel welcomed the audience for the seminar on “What they don’t teach you in Business School”.

The first topic of the seminar was “The Role of Luck in Business”. Mr. Zvi Yemini, ZAG, Hydro, Polymer Logistics, Member of the MIT Enterprise Board spoke on the topic. The second topic “Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Go to Business Schools” and it was addressed by Ofer Shoshan, Co-Founder & CEO , One-Hour Translation, Member of the MIT Enterprise Board. The final and main topic of the seminar was “What they Don’t teach you in Business School”. Prof. Bruce Bachenheimer, Clinical Professor of Management, Pace University who was also leading this trip on Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Israel spoke on this topic.

The seminar provided great insights into Entrepreneurship and the relative importance or relevance of management education through a business school for an entrepreneur.

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Gilad Bet-Halevi & Igal Zeitun Vice President, Product Marketing gave us a presentation on Objet. He defined Objet’s as a leading provider of 3D printing solutions for rapid prototyping. The company has 110 patents and patents pending inventions.

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Mr. Lucien Bronicki founded Ormat about 47 years ago in 1965. Ormat develops sustainable energy solutions primarily Geo-thermal energy solutions. Mr. Lucien Bronicki who spoke with us regarding Ormat believes that there are two types of companies. One type of company does one thing and one thing only, that company puts all eggs in one basket. Other type of company is one which does many things and none of them well. According to him, Ormat takes a middle approach, the company focusses on two things at the same time and if one fails then it goes with the second option. When asked about the future of Geo-thermal eneregy in the energy industry, Mr. Bronicki suggested that the Geo-thermal energy had a niche market because the limited heat lines across the globe.

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Ashkelon Desalination Plant is a high security facility because it provides a invaluable resource called water. Much as the developed world may not realize, water a strategic asset and an problem can cause considerable effect on Israel.

The Ashkelon Panlnat provides 15% of Israel’s requirement which is 120 million cubic meter of water (1 cubic meter = 1000 gallons). The plant is owned by two partners with equal shares Violia Environment and IDE Technologies. The plant is operated on BOT – Build, Operate and Transfer Contract. The private companies have a 25 years time to hold the plant and later it will be transferred to the Israeli government. After 45 years, the plant with many other like it would aim to produce 80% of water through Desalination for the Israel. The current price of water sold by the plant to the government is approximately 80cents per cubic meter.

Technology – The Desalination plant uses a advanced technique called Reverse Osmosis. Reverse Osmosis is the process of send water from high concentration side to low concentration side which are seperated by a membrane by applying immense amount of pressure.

Stages of Desalinization:

Pumping sea water (intake)

Pre-treatment

High Pressure Boost

Sea water Reverse Osmosis

Post-treatment (Add some necessary minerals to water)

However the main ingenuity of the plant is in the use of the high pressure brine from the desalination filter to pump in more pressured water rather than using it for power generation with a turbine.